Evaluation of the use of digital images for a national prostate core external quality assurance scheme

Abstract

Circulation of virtual images of biopsy material is a suitable alternative to glass slide-based schemes for the evaluation of diagnostic consistency. The majority of participants agreed that the ability to evaluate limited diagnostic material outweighed the disadvantages of a virtual system.

Validation of whole slide imaging in the primary diagnosis of gynaecological pathology in a University Hospital

“…WSI scanners create a digital slide of the tissue section which, with the use of specific software, can be viewed and magnified in real time across the web very much like the use of a conventional light microscope (CLM) 1–3. WSI has been shown to have many practical applications including education,4–6 teleconsultation for second opinions,7–10 intraoperative frozen section consultation10 11 and quality assurance 12 13. Potential additional benefits of WSI include improvement of the workflow by eliminating the task of slide distribution and facilitating slide filing and retrieval 1–3…”

Comparing virtual with conventional microscopy for the consensus diagnosis of Barrett’s neoplasia in the AspECT Barrett’s chemoprevention trial pathology audit

“…Interestingly, using virtual slides, the diagnosis was changed in 51%, usually downgrading dysplasia, and hence the validity of the virtual approach in the diagnostic setting was questioned 10 . Virtual microscopy has, however, been shown to be an effective tool for diagnostic quality assurance of polyps detected in colorectal cancer screening 11 and assessment of prostatic biopsies in the external quality assurance scheme, 12 and forms the basis of the pathology bowel cancer screening polyp External Quality Assurance (EQA) scheme in the United Kingdom (http://www.gieqa.org.uk; scheme organizer Dr Nick Mapstone).…”

“…Histological diagnosis on screen‐based images of digitally scanned slides, ‘virtual microscopy’ or ‘telepathology’, is gaining acceptance in some settings, and has a substantial logistical advantage over conventional microscopy. Early experience of using telepathology for the diagnosis of dysplasia in ulcerative colitis, 2,10 grading dysplasia in the quality assurance of screen detected colorectal polyps 11 and as a method to evaluate diagnostic consistency in the external quality assurance scheme for prostate biopsies 12 has been reported, but there are scant data on its utility in the setting of upper GI tract neoplasia and, in particular, Barrett’s oesophagus. The aim of this study was to compare the feasibility of using virtual microscopy in the consensus approach to the diagnosis of Barrett’s neoplasia.…”

Measuring interobserver variation in a pathology EQA scheme using weighted κ for multiple readers

“…The original six diagnostic categories13 were combined in the following four categories: benign/atypia, probably benign (BA), high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia ( hgpin , H), suspicious/HGPIN invasion (SQ) and invasive (I).…”